Last week I brought out the S1 after an absence of about a month. On arriving at the track I noticed a bit of slop in the steering, and compared it with my son's S1. Mine definitely had too much, and this became apparent during the course of the night.
The track had a straight with a sweeper and two hairpins, followed by a quick left then right hairpin, which if taken properly could be taken quicky as a chicane. The chicane was where the slop let the car down and I had to back off a little to make sure I got through without any mishaps. This affected my lap times and consequently I didn't achieve the number of laps I would have liked, although I did manage to win my three heats.
On returning home after racing, I stripped down the steering for closer inspection. This revealed no damage or wear, so I decided to shim the front section of the steering rack. When I originally built the car, the advice on the forums was to shim the steering rack which I did, but only the rear section. This shimming is for the front part as this is where the slop has crept in over time.
A single 0.3mm shim was added but when re-built it wasn't enough to remove the slop. The addition of a second 0.3mm shim sorted this out.
Picture of the shims in place prior to re-building
Spec R make an upgrade which is standard on the R1 and PRO versions of the car. Part SPR-R1A120 Aluminium Steering Rack pictured below is a direct replacement for the plastic part on the S1 car. This is on my wishlist for improving the car as the alloy parts remove the flexibility which is associated with the plastic parts, and also removes the problem of slop in the steering.
